The present invention relates to an electronic control device to control, for instance, an anti-lock brake system (ABS) of a vehicle.
As the electronic control device used for the anti-lock brake system (ABS) of the vehicle, for instance, it is provided at a hydraulic pressure control block that conducts electricity to a vehicle body and mounts various hydraulic pressure control equipment such as a hydraulic pressure control solenoid (a pressure boosting valve and a pressure reducing valve) and various kinds of sensors. The electronic control device has a circuit board mounting thereon electronic components that drive the various hydraulic pressure control equipment and perform signal processing of the various kinds of sensors, and the circuit board is accommodated in a space inside a resin case. Such configuration has been disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2008-174218 (hereinafter is referred to as “JP2008-174218”).
A related art electronic control device usually employs, to connect the circuit board and the sensors through a bus bar, a so-called bus bar unit that is molded as a single-block from a plurality of bus bars, and this bus bar unit (or each bas bar) has a structure in which a sensor terminal is not directly pressure-welded to the circuit board. However, in recent years, there has been proposed and developed a bus bar less structure in which a terminal contact pad is provided on the circuit board then the sensor terminal directly contacts the terminal contact pad, which eliminates the need for the bus bar.
In the case of the electronic control device having the bus bar structure, because the bus bar unit provided with the bus bars is used, parts count might increase and also a size of the electronic control device (e.g. a size in a thickness direction of the bus bar unit) might increase.
In the case of the electronic control device having the bus bar less structure, due to the fact that the sensor terminal directly contacts the terminal contact pad, there is a risk that the circuit board will strain by a pressing force of the sensor terminal. For this problem, it is conceivable that, in order to suppress the strain of the circuit board, the circuit board is fixed with screws at a plurality of positions on the circuit board. However, this manner requires a plurality of screws, and parts count associated with the screw fixing might increase, Nevertheless, since no bus bar (no bus bar unit) is used, it is possible to reduce parts count of the bus bar unit and to realize size reduction of the electronic control device and reduction of products cost, For instance, it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2012-099708 (hereinafter is referred to as “JP2012-099708”).